


The Blood on Torchwood's Hands

by imisskate



Category: Torchwood
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2013-10-20
Updated: 2014-07-20
Packaged: 2017-12-29 22:23:33
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 3
Words: 3,391
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1010820
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/imisskate/pseuds/imisskate
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>While Torchwood's purpose is to smooth out Earth's interactions with aliens, it is not as innocent as it may seem. Gwen is shocked when she learns of experiments Torchwood performed on a teenage girl over a hundred years ago. How did this dark moment of Torchwood's past come up, and what happened to the girl? Chronologically between Seasons 1 & 2, contains knowledge of TW from S3.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Gwen Starts it All

                Gwen Cooper was in a hurry. She was late for work (which honestly didn’t matter that much, but still, Jack sometimes liked to pretend that this was a somewhat normal job) and it was freezing. She wasn’t paying attention to anything around her as she barreled through the streets with her head down and her hood up. _If Jack has us chasing after anything in this bloody weather I will kill –_

                Her thoughts were interrupted as she collided with someone who hadn’t been in front of her a second ago. “What the hell?” Gwen sputtered, putting her hood back on her head, as it had just fallen off. Upon closer inspection Gwen noticed that the person she had run into was a young woman, about the same height as Gwen herself.

                “Sorry, I wasn’t really paying attention,” Gwen drawled in her Welsh accent. When the young woman didn’t acknowledge her presence, Gwen’s temper started to rise. “Excuse me, I apologized, now I think it’s your turn!” The young woman jumped as if she hadn’t noticed Gwen’s presence until just then. As she turned around Gwen noticed that she was quite young, in her late teens or early twenties. She was pretty, but there was something… _off_ about her. _Is she twitching?_ Gwen wondered, unnerved.

                “Do you see them?” The young lady whispered. Gwen started to back away slowly. _This one’s a nutter_ , she thought sadly. _Pity, she’s a pretty thing._

                “I knew it, you can’t see them either!” the young woman exclaimed in a very American accent, closing the gap that Gwen had just created between them. “That’s right, sweetheart…” Gwen muttered as she stepped away once more. _A nutter_ and _a tourist, lovely._

                “They’re under that perception filter again!”

                Gwen, who had been several paces away by then, froze in her tracks. _I’m thinking about work right now, so I just imagined this girl saying that… right?_

                “What did you say, sweetheart?” Gwen asked as she turned to face the girl again.

                The girl looked surprised that someone was actually speaking to her. “There are people watching me,” she said slowly. “Constantly. But no one believes me because they’re under some perception filter thing!”

                “…so no one can see them, right. But how do you know they’re there?” Gwen questioned curiously. _If this girl_ actually _knows about perception filters, maybe something’s up._

 “Because they remove it when no one else is around- it’s really hard to explain.” The girl grabbed Gwen by the arms. “You know what a perception filter is? Can you help me?” she asked desperately.

                “Yes, I believe I can,” Gwen said kindly. _Even if she_ is _insane, this is the kind of bonkers thing that is right up Torchwood’s alley. Let’s see what the team will make of her._

                “Follow me,” Gwen instructed as she started walking again. The young woman matched her stride beside her.

                “So you know about perception filters, then?” she asked Gwen.

                “Yes, I do. It’s part of my job. I work for Torchwood, an organization that investigates the…” Gwen paused, trying to think of the right word. She didn’t want to give too much about Torchwood away to this stranger. “…abnormal. My name is Gwen, by the way.”

                “That’s a pretty name. I’m Autumn,” The young woman said politely. “And if you investigate the abnormal, you’re exactly what I need. It’s a long story, so I’ll just tell it when we get to… wherever we’re going.”

                “Sounds good to me,” Gwen said, smiling at the younger woman. They linked arms and walked the rest of the way to Torchwood.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Short chapter, I know. Stick with it, it gets interesting!


	2. The Stranger in the Hub

                Gwen considered taking the sidewalk lift, but that would put Autumn right in the middle of the Hub, and she wasn't even sure if this classified as something Torchwood should look into.  _I'll go through the visitor's entrance and talk to Jack before I let her in_ , Gwen decided.

                "Why are we going to a tourist information center?" Autumn asked Gwen when they reached the main entrance.

                "It's… uh… connected to where I work," Gwen answered. "That's how people get in. Kind of weird, I know."

                Autumn nodded thoughtfully and followed Gwen through the door. Although they couldn't hear it, Gwen knew a bell rang somewhere in the depths of Hub, summoning Ianto. Surely enough, they shortly heard a voice float in from down the hall – "With you in a moment!"

                "What can I do for –" Ianto started to say as he clambered through the door behind the desk. He stopped mid-sentence when he noticed Gwen. "Why didn't you use the sidewalk –" His eyes landed on Autumn and he nodded knowingly. "Ahh, we have a vistor! How may I help you, miss?"

                "Well, I stumbled into Gwen a little bit away from here," Autumn said _. Yes,_ literally _stumbled_ , Gwen thought dryly. Once Autumn had explained her perception filter predicament to Ianto, Gwen added, "So, I would like to speak with Jack about this and see how and if we should proceed from here."

                "Yes, well, I would like to speak to Jack as well, but he seems to have disappeared again," Ianto said, clearly annoyed. "I've checked everywhere, and I'm sure he's not in the Hub. I haven't seen him since about six p.m. yesterday."

                Gwen sighed. Ever since Jack had vanished off the face of the Earth a few weeks ago (literally, as it had turned out) he had been distant from the rest of the team. It was somewhat common for him to be gone for days at a time. The team often questioned him on where he went and why, but he never spoke a word about it. During his absence, Gwen took on the role of team leader, a position that she had recently been filling quite often.

                "Well then, I guess I'll just go ahead and deal with this how I want to," Gwen announced. While she was confident in her abilities as leader, Jack had many,  _many_  more years of experience under his belt, and she often liked to consult him before she did something out of the ordinary.

                "In that case," Ianto replied, "I'll take your coat, miss –" He paused. "Sorry, I didn't catch your name," he politely inquired.

                "I'm Autumn," The young lady said, sticking out her arm. Ianto shook her hand. "Nice to meet you, Autumn. My name is Ianto. And if you'll step right through here…"

                Gwen followed as Ianto led Autumn through the hallway behind the tourist entrance and towards the center of the Hub. She always enjoyed the transition from the ordinary and boring and into the spectacular. The sudden change in scenery was not unlike her life – overnight, she had changed from an everyday policewoman into a member of the most top secret organization in the country.

                Autumn froze in her tracks as the sliding circular door slid away to reveal the vast main area of the Torchwood Hub. Her gaze wandered across the room, taking in the oddities – the pterodactyl, for instance. She stood there speechless for a few more seconds until Gwen, who had been standing, waiting for Autumn to move, got bored.

                "Alright darling, yes, it is a lovely sight, but let's get a move on…" Gwen muttered. She grabbed Autumn's arm, led the girl to her desk, and pulled out her desk chair. After motioning for Autumn to sit in it, she said, "Now, I'm going to gather all my co-workers and you can tell us what's up, okay?" Autumn nodded solemnly.

                Gwen then turned towards Ianto. "Go down to autopsy and grab Owen for me, will you? I think he's chopping up another dead Weevil for some reason or another," she instructed.

                "And the bossiness returns," Ianto commented. He then smiled and added, "Like clockwork, it is, every time you take the lead."

                "Sorry, Ianto, I don't really mean to!  _Please_  go get Owen?" Gwen asked sheepishly.

                "Of course." Ianto said, turning around to locate Owen.

                "What's going on?" Tosh wondered aloud as she walked towards Gwen's desk. "I heard a lot of talking and an unfamiliar voice." Her eyes lit up as she noticed Autumn. "A visitor, how exciting! Why is she here?"

                "She's here to tell us a story involving a perception filter," Gwen stated. "Once Owen is here, she'll give us the details. I wanted the whole team to hear it at once, so we don't have to repeat it."

                Tosh nodded and went to her desk to grab her chair. Just then, Ianto returned with Owen. "This better be important, Gwen, because you know I don't like being interrupted while I'm dissecting something!" Owen grumbled as he walked towards the group sitting around Gwen's desk. "A visitor?" He questioned, looking Autumn over. "What's this about?"

                "Grab a chair and she'll tell us," Gwen asserted. "Tosh, would you take notes? Jack will return at some point, and we'll have to fill him in."

                Tosh, who took pleasure in work that the rest of the team members disliked, nodded happily. Gwen grabbed a clipboard and paper off of her desk and wrote a note at the top of the paper. The clipboard was passed from Ianto to Owen to Tosh.

_This may turn out to be nothing, but I felt that we should listen to what she has to say. If it turns out to be unimportant, I'll Retcon her and put her back where I found her._

                Each team member nodded after reading the message. Once Tosh had received the clipboard, Gwen began to talk. "These are the members of Torchwood," she explained to Autumn. "This is Tosh and Owen, and you've met Ianto and myself." She paused, wondering if she should mention Jack.  _Autumn will probably be long gone before Jack sets foot in here again_ , Gwen thought bitterly.  _It doesn't matter if she doesn't know who he is._

                She turned to Owen and Tosh. "This is Autumn. I found her earlier today, talking about a perception filter of some sort. She's going to tell us what happened." She smiled at Autumn and placed a her hand on her knee reassuringly. "Go ahead, sweetheart."

                Autumn, looking nervous as the four adults all focused on her, nodded and mumbled, "I think I've been tortured."


	3. Movie Night

                “Really, Father? You’re going with me?” Autumn squealed as she jumped up and down. Today was the day the fifteen-year-old had been looking forward to all year – July 11, 2007, the midnight premiere of the latest Harry Potter movie!

                Autumn’s father sighed. “Yes, Autumn, I told you I would go when I bought the tickets months ago,” he muttered, obviously not looking forward to the long night.

                He didn’t look forward to many things that had to do with his only child, Autumn knew. She had been a mistake. She had never met her mother, and she didn’t think she ever would.  And although her father seemed to have a general disinterest when it came to anything that had to do with her, Autumn knew that he had taken her in when he didn’t have to.

                A few months ago, she had overheard a phone call between her father and his mother. She had only heard her father’s side of the conversation, but it was obvious he was talking about her.

_“I told you, her mother hasn’t seen her since the hour she was born. I took her home from the hospital… No, I won’t go find her! She would be a horrid mother… I didn’t want her to go into the adoption process… thank you, Mother, I’m_ so _glad you respect my choices.”_

                With that, he slammed the phone back down on to its base and leaned back in his office chair with a sigh. Autumn quickly scampered away before he knew that she had overheard the only conversation in which he had shown a little bit of kindness towards her.

                With that old phone call in mind, Autumn did something she hadn’t done in many years- she ran up to her father and hugged him.

                “Autumn, what-“ Her father stuttered, starting to protest. After a second he just stood there, allowing her to rest her head on his chest. She awkwardly pulled away and muttered “Thank you!” before scurrying away.

_Never doing that again_ , Autumn thought embarrassedly as she sorted through her closet, trying to choose which Harry Potter shirt she should wear to the midnight premiere. Although her father didn’t pay attention to her, he did give her all the money she wanted – so there were quite a few t-shirts to choose from.

~

                During the car ride to the best movie theater in Dallas, Texas, Autumn reflected on the fact that her father was with her with mixed feelings. This would be their first time to go to the movie theater together, and she was both nervous and excited. _What if he doesn’t like the movie? What if he gets bored? What if I cry and it annoys him?_ Autumn worried. She cried at almost every movie she watched – she was a very emotional person, the complete opposite of her father.

                They arrived at the theater and presented the tickets her father had bought her online months ago. As soon as they traded the online tickets for the real ones, Autumn followed the standard procedure of midnight premieres and began to walk to the end of the long line that stretched to the back of the theater. After two steps, however, her father grabbed at the sleeve of her shirt and stopped her.

                “There is no way I am waiting in line for-“ he checked his watch- “two and a half hours!” He said, outraged. With Autumn in tow he stormed up to the worker managing the long lines. “Excuse me,” he said, waving his hand to tell her to get out of the way.

                “Sir, I can’t let you through,” the worker said, exasperated. “The theaters don’t open for another forty-five minutes.”

                “I said, _excuse me,”_ Autumn’s father hissed, shoving a bill into the worker’s hand and barreling past her. “Come on,” he muttered to Autumn.  Stunned, she followed.

                “Did you just give that worker a hundred dollar bill?!” Autumn cried.

                “Yes, I did. I will not wait in a line for two and a half hours, that is simply ridiculous.” He said indignantly. “Let’s get our food and sit.”

_But I_ like _standing in line,_ Autumn silently protested. _That’s when I get to talk to other fans!_

                After getting the biggest popcorn bucket that the movie theater had to offer, they went to sit in the very back of the completely deserted theater. Autumn sighed and sat down as she listened to the distant cheers of the enthusiastic fans waiting outside.

                Her father pulled out his laptop and his noise-cancelling headphones. “Please don’t disturb me, I have a lot of work to catch up on,” he muttered, already not paying attention to her.

_At least I came prepared,_ Autumn thought sadly. She reached into her large purse and pulled out her battered copy of _Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix_ and her iPod. The soundtrack to the new movie had been released just that morning, and because she had pre-ordered it on iTunes, it had downloaded to her iPod the second it became available. She put her headphones in and quickly entered the magical world that she longed to escape to.

                The father and daughter were technically closer than normal, but mentally very far away.

~

                As the end credits started rolling, Autumn dried her tears with the sleeve of her jacket. _The movie was so good!_ She thought happily. _They left out some important things, but that’s the nature of movies. I hope Father liked it..._

                Her train of thought stopped abruptly as she looked at her father and saw that he was fast asleep with his noise-canceling headphones on once again. _What did I expect?_ She thought bitterly. _It was a miracle he went with me, I shouldn’t have wished for anything else._

She slowly removed the headphones and put them back in their fancy case. After all their possessions were back in their bags, she gently tapped her father on the shoulder.

                “Father, the movie’s over,” she whispered in his ear. He jerked his head up and looked around frantically before he realized where he was.

                “Let’s go then, I have to go to work early tomorrow,” he mumbled sleepily.

                They silently left the theater together and headed towards the front exit. Just before they were about to walk out the doors, Autumn’s father stopped.

                “I’m going to use the restroom before we go.” He stated. “Go wait by the car.”

                Autumn nodded and walked out of theater. Tears started flowing down her cheeks more and more rapidly as she got closer to the car. She wasn’t usually bothered this easily, but a combination of sleepiness, left over emotion from the movie, and her father’s lack of interest in one of her favorite things in the world left her vulnerable to her emotions. She slumped down on to the hood and desperately tried to stop crying. Autumn had never cried in front of her father before, and she wasn’t about to start now.

                Autumn was so absorbed in her emotions that she didn’t notice the dark figure sneaking up the side of her father’s car. She was jolted out of her self-pitying thoughts as a pair of hands grabbed her and yanked her off the hood of the vehicle. Autumn immediately screamed in terror but was quickly silenced by a gloved hand roughly pressing against her mouth.

                _Holy shit oh my gosh oh my gosh this isn’t happening-_ she thought frantically. With a violent twist of her body she managed to escape the small arms that were wrapped around her. Without a second thought she ran as fast as she could away from the unknown person that had snatched her.

                “Shit!” she heard a feminine voice shout from behind her as she continued to put as much distance between her and her attacker as possible. _A female did this?_ Autumn thought, surprised. _That is statistically unlikely… but there’s an exception to every rule, I suppose._

                Autumn stopped to catch her breath against the wall of the theater. She turned her head back and forth constantly but did not see anyone else near her. _I should go back to the theater lobby to find my father,_ she reasoned.

                She turned to walk towards the doors of the theater when suddenly, the breath was knocked out of her as a different, stronger pair of arms wrapped around her from behind and crushed her chest. She desperately gasped for air and futilely attempted to scream. Her legs, the only part of her body that weren’t hindered by the unknown arms surrounding her, lashed out relentlessly. The heels of Autumn’s boots made contact with the kneecaps of her captor multiple times, but the grip on her did not slacken.

                “Please don’t make me do this,” a man’s voice pleaded. Autumn, confused, stopped kicking for a moment. _What? He’s the one in the position of power here, not me!_

                With renewed anger, Autumn began to thrash once again. The man sighed and removed one of his arms from around her torso. Autumn immediately attempted to escape, but the grip from only one of the man’s arms was much stronger than the previous female’s, and she couldn’t get free.

                The pressure on her chest had decreased when the man removed his arm and she was able to take a deep breath. As if anticipating her scream, the man quickly tightened his grip. His free hand came into Autumn’s view and even in the darkness of the night she could see exactly what it was- a syringe.

                A piercing howl met Autumn’s ears as she watched the needle get closer and closer to her arm. She realized with a shock that the scream was hers just as the needle pierced her flesh. She frantically attempted to move every limb of her body, but to no avail- the arms were unceasingly strong.

                “Father,” Autumn screamed as her body slowly stopped responding to what her brain was instructing it to do. “Father…” she whispered again, barely audible.

_Will.... he.... worry...?_ were Autumn’s last thoughts before the weight of her body slumped fully into the unknown arms.


End file.
